Nelly O’Brien

English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds was noted for his use of color and his ability to capture character. Nelly O’Brien, painted from 1760 to 1762, is one of his best-known works. It is in the Wallace Collection in London, England.

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England has never had a more famous painter of portraits than Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1799), who knew how to use colour better than any other man who lived in that time. His portraits have a bold and vigorous feeling, and suggest strength rather than dainti­ness like Gainsborough's.

When Reynolds was twenty-one, he caught a cold which left him deaf for life, and before he died he became almost blind, so that his last years were very sad. But he was a great and clever man, and besides being a painter he was a very fine writer. His lectures on art are still read.

In literature, the reigns of Queen Anne and George the First form one of the most brilliant periods of English literary history. Early in Anne's reign Defoe (Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731) and Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) displayed their talent for satire — the former on the side of the Whigs, the latter on the side of the Tories. A little later, Sleele, Richard (1672-1729) and Addison, Joseph (1672-1719) pictured the English society in the humorous and reflective pages of their periodicals "The Tatler" and "The Spectator". Pope, Alexander (1688-1744) in his "Rape of the Lock" and in other poems, gave a polish and brilliance to his verse.

In the reign of George the First, Defoe published his immortal "Robinson Crusoe"; while Swift lashed the weaknesses of mankind in "Gulliver's travels", and upheld the rights of Ireland in the "Drapier's Letters". About the same time, Pope's translations of the "Ili— ad" and "Odyssey" presented Homer to English readers in an eigh-teen-century dress, which, however, brilliant as it is, obscures the peculiar charms of the Greek original. Scotland, meanwhile, was beginning to contribute her share to literature. Allan Ramsey's (1686-1758) pastoral play, "The Gentle Shepherd", still holds its place in the affections of the Scottish people, and Thomson's book of poetry "Seasons"— though somewhat artificial, show much observation (Thomson, James — 1700-1748).

During the fifty years that preceded the French Revolution, the English novel reached a very high level. The readers had "Clarissa" by Samuel Richardson (1689-1761); "Vicar of Wakefield" by Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774); "Tristram Shandy" by Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), and the works by Henry Fielding (1717-1754), his main novel was "Tom Jones", and Tobias George Smolett (1721-1771) "Humphry Clinker", "Perigrin Pickle", etc. There were sparkling comedies by Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheri­dan (1751-1816).

In poetry there were Thomas Gray (1716-1771), whose "Ele­gy Written in a Country Graveyard" Wolfe repeated when he crossed the St. Lawrence, and a little later — William Cowper (1731-1800). But the greatest literary figure of the time is that of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), he was great in almost all departments of literature, but greatest as a talker, whose brilliant and solid wit is immortalized in the pages of his "Life" by Boswell. Two years before Johnson died, Cowper's poems announced the approach of a new and more romantic age.

Looking at the period as a whole, it may fairly be said that the writers already mentioned in poetry, essay, and romance, together with Berkeley, George (1685-1763), and Hume, David (1711-1776) in philosophy, Richard Bentley (1662-1742) in scholarship, Adam Smith (1723-1790) in economics, Hume and Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) in history, gave England a position in the world of letters with which not even France at that time could compare.

NAMES AND EXPRESSIONS

owing to various causes — по разным причинам

became more and more marked — становилось все более явным

(заметным)

national wealt h — национальное благосостояние that is to say — то есть

Yorkshire [ jo:k∫(i)ə] — Йоркшир, графство в Англии Lankashire [lgerjka f(i)a] — Ланкашир, графство в Англии

gave place — уступило место

nursary — место зарождения

he was better off — он был лучше обеспечен

did not make him any good — не приносило ему добра (хорошего)

necessities — предметы жизненной необходимости

Hogarth ['həuga:t]— Хогарт he was apprenticed — его отдали в обучение Gainsborough [,geinsbərə]— Гейнсборо

suggest strength — проявляют силу

Steele [sti:l]— Стиль

Addison ['ædis(ə)n]—Аддисон

drapier ['dreipə]— суконщик

Laurence Sterne ['lor(ə)ns st3:n]— Лоренс Стерн

Hume [jum] — Юм

Gibbon ['gibbən]— Гиббон

a position in a world of letters — положение в литературном мире

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